KALAMAZOO, MI - Toledo (4-22, 1-14) put a scare into Mid-American Conference West Division leader Western Michigan (20-9, 11-4) tonight but still ended up on the short end of a 3-1 (28-30, 30-17, 30-19, 30-16) decision at University Arena.   Junior OH Shannon Strachan led the Rockets with 14 kills with sophomore OH Stephanie Kersting (nine kills) and senior OH Sarah Kreher (eight kills) near the double-digit mark in kills. Senior MB Brittany Alaburda led Toledo's defensive efforts with four blocks, while junior libero Lori Ruth contributed a team-high 11 digs.

Five Broncos finished with 10 or more kills in the win with Michelle Moore and Jaime Gotham leading the way with 18 and 16 kills, respectively. Caitlin Strimel led a strong defensive effort with 20 digs and was one of six WMU players to reach double digits.

Toledo started the first game on a 7-2 run aided by Strachan, who started the match with four kills in five attempts and a pair of aces. The Rockets extended their lead to 14-7 but the Broncos rallied with a 6-1 run to force UT to call a timeout. The timeout fired up the Rockets as they came out of the break to push their lead back to seven, 21-14, with a 6-1 run of their own. WMU countered by coming back within 23-20 to force a second Rocket timeout. With Toledo leading, 27-21, Moore went to work with a trio of kills from the corner to help the Broncos back to within one point, 27-26. Toledo had game point at 29-27 as Strachan served. A miscue for the Rockets gave WMU life, 29-28, and the serve. It was short-lived as Western Michigan committed a blocking error to give the visiting Rockets the opening set, 30-28.

The Bronco offense came into the second set with a purpose, jumping out to a quick 11-4 lead on a kill from Ashley Vogl. To that point the junior had six kills on 11 attempts but that did not lead the WMU effort. Gotham was hitting at a 6-for-8 clip (.750) early in the match. Moore tallied her eighth kill cross-court to give WMU its largest lead of the match, to that point, 17-7 and Toledo couldn't recover.

The third game had more a back and forth flow to it as Western Michigan jumped out to a 7-2 lead but moments later the Rockets trailed by just two points, 10-8. A service error by Toledo's TaNeisha Winters gave WMU a 16-12 lead. Gotham and Sam Viox combined on a block to push the Broncos' lead back to four, 17-13. That play served as a catalyst for Western Michigan as the home team scored four-straight points with Gotham's first solo block of the match serving as the exclamation point, forcing a Toledo timeout down, 21-14.Western Michigan did not look back from there, outscoring the visiting Rockets 9-5 to take the third game 30-19.

A milestone was established early in the fourth set as Moore's second kill of the game, 16th of the match at that point, moved her into sole possession of fifth place for kills in a season at WMU with 473. A tightly contested game at the outset quickly turned in WMU's favor as the Broncos broke open an 18-8 lead, forcing a Toledo timeout. The break helped the Rockets as they scored the next three points but a serve into net by Lori Ruth gave Western Michigan an eight-point advantage again, 19-11. A handling error called on Toledo's Margot Joniec pushed the Broncos' lead back to double digits, 22-12.

Toledo returns to action tomorrow night in DeKalb, IL for its regular-season finale vs. Northern Illinois. The Rockets will begin play in the 2007 MAC Tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 13.